September 12 – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray had an unhappy reunion with the Cincinnati Reds this season.
Gray (12-9, 3.84 ERA) played for the Reds from 2019-21, but lost both starts against his former team in 2023. Earned 12 points (9 ERA).
Including his start in 2016, he is 0–3 with a 5.82 ERA in his career against Cincinnati, allowing 14 runs (11 ERA) on 17 hits in 17 innings.
He will try again Thursday when the Cardinals (73-72) host the Reds (71-76) to end the three-game series.
Cincinnati won 3–0 on Tuesday and St. Louis won 2–1 on Wednesday, snapping the Reds’ three-game winning streak.
On August 12, Spencer Steere hit two home runs and drove in five runs against the Grays, where Eli De La Cruz Chuya helped him make big strides.
Gray has been on a roll lately. In his last two starts against the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers, he gave up just two runs and seven hits in 13 innings.
He struck out 11 batters in those games and walked just one, while his ERA fell from a season-high of 4.07.
The Cardinals, like the Reds, have struggled to score lately, but Paul Goldschmidt has been excellent. The first baseman, who batted .361 in September, had the decisive RBI double in the eighth inning on Wednesday after Michael Siani singled and stole second base.
“That’s the way you set it up, the first batter comes in, gets to second and we’re able to hit there and hopefully win the series (Thursday),” Goldschmidt told Bally Sports Midwest.
“I thought we put a lot of balls in play against guys today, but I felt good about a lot of the at-bats we had, but there wasn’t a lot of execution,” Cardinals head coach Oliver Marmor said.
Despite injuries to four of the team’s top five starters, Reds coach David Bell was able to put together an adequate pitching staff.
Cincinnati has allowed a combined two points in its last three games with starters Nick Martinez, Rhett Lord and Brandon Williamson.
“They stepped up,” Bell said. “They’ve been doing that all year, really, especially our bullpen. But our starters have been outstanding. They’ve done nothing but answer questions when we’ve been challenged more than usual. And hopefully being in this position they’ll do everything they can to help us win games.”
The Reds will give Jakob Junis (4-0, 2.82 ERA) another chance on Thursday. Since arriving in Cincinnati from Milwaukee before the trade deadline, he has posted a 3.24 ERA in 11 games, including two starts.
On August 12, Junis pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief against the Cardinals. As a result, he had a 2.48 ERA, including 5 starts.
The Cardinals removed reliever Chris Roycroft from their roster on Wednesday, sending him back to Triple-A Memphis so that starting pitcher Lance Lynn could return from a 15-day injury after he was removed from the illness list.
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